England Vs India, 1st ODI: Men in Blue Thrash Hosts in a One-sided Affair

India produced a quite dominant performance in the opening One-day International (ODI) as they registered a comprehensive eight-wicket victory with 59 deliveries to spare.

The victory was largely built around a great century by Rohit Sharma and a superb six-wicket haul by enigmatic Kuldeep Yadav. Despite being the number one team in the world,

India totally totally outplayed in all the departments. They need to play absolutely at their best if they harbour hopes of making a comeback.

It was the Indian skipper Virat Kohli who won the toss and opted to field. It has been in the trend in the limited overs series in England so far.

The English openers Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy began quite well. However, there was an opportunity for India to bag Bairstow in the very first over had Virat Kohli gone for the review.

The duo looked in good touch and played some wonderful shots during their brilliant partnership of 73 runs in just 10.2 overs.

However, with the introduction of Kuldeep, the whole scenario of the match changed. Roy played a false shot and was dismissed by Kuldeep which started the slide for the hosts.

He bagged two more scalps in quick succession in the form of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. It was simply world-class bowling by the chinaman bowler as he bamboozled two top-class batters.

Both failed to read which way the ball was turning and fell to his track. Yuzvendra Chahal came into the act with the wicket of English skipper Eoin Morgan.

England was in a precarious situation when Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes joined hands to resurrect the English innings.

Buttler looked in great touch. However, Ben Stokes wasn’t at his free-flowing best and was troubled on a consistent basis by Kuldeep and Chahal.

The most important wicket came in Kuldeep’s second spell when he got rid of Jos Buttler. It was a strangle down the leg side and Mahendra Singh Dhoni held on to a stunning catch. He went on to bag the wicket of Ben Stokes too as his painstaking innings came to an end.

The sixth wicket came in the form of David Willey as the southpaw smashed a rag long hop straight to the deep fielder.

England eventually managed to score 268 which was never going to be enough on the Nottingham wicket.

The Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan began in a splendid manner. Dhawan, in particular, began with two exquisite cover drives on the bowling of David Willey.

Boundaries kept flowing from his blade as he raced off to 40 off just 27 deliveries before being dismissed by spinner Moeen Ali.

From there on, the familiar duo of  Rohit and Kohli batted quite brilliantly. Rohit played some magnificent shots and carried on from where he left in Bristol for India.

Rohit looked in sublime touch and so did Kohli. The Indian skipper smashed some scorching cover drives. Rohit kept playing some terrific shots and reached his 18^th ODI century.

Adil Rashid eventually dismissed Virat Kohli. Rohit carried his bat and remained unbeaten on 137. India reached the target in the 41st over.

Brief Scores:

England 268 all-out in 49.5 overs (Jos Buttler 53, Ben Stokes 50, Kuldeep Yadav 6/25)

India 269/2 in 48.1 overs (Rohit Sharma 137*, Virat Kohli 75)

India won by 8 wickets (with 47 deliveries to spare)